Friday, 28 April 2017

Born in a small Sichuanese city, Baishui is a composer and self-taught guitarist, pianist and master of many traditional Chinese instruments, whose compositions and performance have ranged across his career from neo-folk and dark-ambient-influenced music to experimental and post-rock sounds—and beyond.

He has recorded more than 10 albums which were critically acclaimed and won him a worldwide interest and prizes.

He has been performing in a lot of different countries and while sometime his music may seem to be the product of very different artists, they reflect Baishui’s multi-faceted approach to the musical expression of his personal journey.

No Intrinsic, No Independent is a single 23 minutes long track originally recorded in 2011. It shows his more post-rock influences, mixing at times even some prog or jazz touches, before finishing with a typically folk flute reminding his Shichuanese roots.

Thursday, 20 April 2017

Under strong influences of Japanese cult anime Akira's soundtrack (by Japanese amateur chorus Geinoh Yamashirogumi) and Einstuerzende Neubauten, Yingfan starts making bedroom recordings since 1991, and performs under various aliases and forms since 2002, recognized as an "outsider artist" in Taiwanese underground art/music scenes.

Since 2010, he collaborated with various contemporary dance companies, performance art groups, independent film productions, colleges, art curators, museums, galleries and small theaters, for contributing music/sound designs, artworks, as well as actings.

This album sees him various approches to fake music, from contemporary classical to noise to drones to jazz, using his talent to succeed with a brilliant album of counterfeit but definitely honest and intriguing music!

All tracks by Dawang Yingfan Huang.

Recorded in Taipei between autumn 2016 and winter 2017 with lo-spec equipments.

Thursday, 13 April 2017

First release on the new ‘Asian’ series based exclusively on Asian musicians (but Japanese, see the 'Japanese' series for that) / non Asian musicians living in Asia or any combination possible between Asian musicians and the rest of the world, is Beijing based GUIGUISUISUI, a two piece journey into sounds and performances.

Man and woman, East and West, past and future, side by side, blending 8-bit electronics meditation samples whilst channeling blues, rock, hip hop, doom, punk, noise, and ambient bliss while performing an avante garde opera featuring a number of characters.

This particular release focuses on the duo of preacher and minister for the cult of greed Lord Kamemameha and high priestess of profit Lady Chakra, including tracks and remixes from the ‘Wu Xing’ EP as well as an earlier incarnation of Lord Kamemameha from when GUIGUISUISUI was still a solo project.

Lady Chakra: vocals, percussion.

Lord Kamemameha: vocals, guitars, bass, synths, beats, samples.

‘Zombie Land’ and ‘Shadow Of The Moon’ Recorded by Yang Haisong at Psychic Kong in Beijing, China and in an apple tree in Dartford, England; mixed and mastered by Li Shenjie at Ran Music in Beijing, China. From the ‘Wu Xing’ EP: Bandcamp link

‘Cutting Ceaser Down’ recorded and mixed by GUIGUISUISUI in Beijing, China. From the ‘GUIGUISUISUI vs Black Science’ EP on Nasty Wizard Recordings / Hell Is Now Love: Bandcamp link

For the remixes:

Thruoutin is an American producer based in Beijing, China who combines heavily sampled electronic elements accented by vocals and the Chinese lute, ‘pipa’. He has toured extensively around Asia and the north American, including a Taiwan tour with an earlier incarnation of GUIGUISUISUI, and released through a number of labels. Bandcamp link

Lastboss is a British multi genre producer currently based in Zhuhai, China. While he lends his talents to many types of electronic music his ambient works are what caught the attention of GUIGUISUISUI due to his lush and mesmerizing dreamscapes, swirling around like an ocean of sound.Bandcamp link

Dee is a Chinese artist based in Beijing who constantly crosses back and forth between experimental dance, avante garde performance, and meditative noise. Sampling the every day and seemingly mundane, Dee constantly reinvents the world around him in a manner that is sometimes confrontational but always intriguing. Bandcamp link

Dazed Marrow is an American multi genre producer based in South Korea. Excelling at sinister yet fascinating soundscapes with infectious beats nestled beneath, Dazed Marrow sounds like a Harkonen dance party on Ghedi Prime from ten thousand years in the future, which is perhaps why he’s signed to the same label as William Shatner, Cleopatra Records. Bandcamp link

Lord Kamehameha and Lady Chakra

A video created especially for the Dazed Marrow remix:

And the original version and video from their original album:

Digital release on the 14th of April 2017.Digitally distributed on KKBOX for all the Asian friends who want to listen and discover!

Thursday, 6 April 2017

After releasing his solo album 'La mer dans le ciel' (see ODG063), American contemporary composer and musician John Franek return with another project: Helix 2, a new piano duo composed of himself and Mike Ryan.

Slower is an album composed entirely of improvisations for two pianos and these pieces are filled with lively melodic action, rhythmic precision and fast changing harmonic qualities. Helix 2 also performs concerts of established four-hand and two piano repertoire, with a concert scheduled as far into the future as Paris in 2019.

The music is definitely contemporary but the use of an organ and the added electronics give it a different edge than the usual four hands piano pieces. One could feel some reminiscences with Steve Reich, Wim Mertens or Philip Glass or the minimalism mouvement, but Helix 2 brings something more romantic to the genre.

About Off

Off is a Belgian based label founded by Alain Lefebvre in 2007.
If you want to download, click on any Bandcamp buttons in the 'Listen and download' page. For the rest, just click on the name of the provider you want to buy from in each Believe player under the album you want to download.
If you want the real thing, you will find a BUY button linked to Paypal at the end of each cd presentation. You can also go on the Catalogue page and click on the cd you want to discover. You will find again the BUY button at the bottom of the page. Or go on the Shop page then just go to paypal.com and order at:
order@stilll.org , just leave a comment with which cds you want.